They do, which is why I can't play with them, Glen. I recently had a really terrific write come to me asking if he write a new Secret Six story for Airship 27 and I had to say no. Again, we only handle public domain properties.

They do, which is why I can't play with them, Glen. I recently had a really terrific write come to me asking if he write a new Secret Six story for Airship 27 and I had to say no. Again, we only handle public domain properties.

Just out of curiosity - how do you find out whether something is public domain?

(I've always been a bit curious - consider it part of my addiction to some of Librivox's audiobook releases )

Gordon, I belong to the PULP FACTORY, a Yahoo On-line group with over 80 members. Its devoted to pulps and many of our members have been active in pulp fandom for over ten years or more. Many are actually pulp historians. Ergo, when I'm on the hunt to discover the legal status of any old pulp property I do two things. The first is my own research on-line, while at the same time putting out the word on these boards and asking for any information my colleagues might have. People like CR's own Mark Halegua are invaluable and often times provide me with detailed histories of the properties in question to include their current ownership....or public domain status. Keep in mind this doesn't always give us a clear cut answer. So many of these properties changed hands over the years, some of them are really convoluted in regards to rights and would take half a dozen copyright lawyers to untangle. Whenever I encounter those scenarios, I also shy away. Again, its only when I'm convinced that something is public domain, do we then get projects rolling with those properties.

Thanks - part of the reason I asked is that I know Blackmask.com got into serious trouble because they were putting out PDF versions ofDoc Savage pulps, and Conde Nast politely asked them to stop. The site owner at the time countered that Doc was public domain, and thenConde Nast asked them *not* so politely to stop. Long story short, the restorations were pulled, and within a year or so, Nostalgia Ventures began its series of excellent reproductions.

I remember all that and the Blackmask people were idiots. Street & Smith inheritors have kept those rights alive fanatically. They'd be crazy not to.All the giant pulp heroes, the Shadow, Doc Savage, the Spider and the Avenger have had their rights renewed like clockwork. Right now super pulp fan Shane Black is in pre-production to direct IRON-MAN 3, after which he is set to write and direct a new DOC SAVAGE film. All us pulp fans are really keeping our fingers crossed on this one.

They do, which is why I can't play with them, Glen. I recently had a really terrific write come to me asking if he write a new Secret Six story for Airship 27 and I had to say no. Again, we only handle public domain properties.

There's no need to apologize for your policy. I think it's a good one, if only to prohibit lawsuits.